Soulard neighborhood to install 16 new security cameras

The Soulard neighborhood is set to get more than a dozen new cameras thanks to thousands of dollars raised by the community.

The Mardi Gras Foundation and Alderman Jack Coater will announce the details of the security camera program on Thursday. A release said there will be 16 cameras of different types installed around Soulard neighborhood by fall.

Cameras have been something discussed and wanted by residents, businesses and visitors in Soulard for years.

Mia Gardner works as a bartender at Johhny’s Bar and Restaurant. She says as a woman working late at night, she would feel much better knowing cameras connected to the Real Time Crime Center, who will be keeping an eye out.

“What’s happening now is people are robbing people at gunpoint and scaring them away, we don’t know who these people are, what they look like, where they’re from, they could live right here, we just don’t know,” said Gardner.

The funding for the cameras was a community wide effort.

According to a release, the Soulard Camera System as initiated by a $23,000 Mardi Gras Foundation Community Improvement Grant. In all, the community including the Soulard Restoration Group, Soulard Business Association, Soulard Special Business District and individual businesses McGurk’s and Molly’s raised $85.000 for the project. The 7th Ward contributed another $110,000.

Chief Sam Dotson will demonstrate some of the new cameras at the Real Time Crime Center on Thursday.